High range precision laser radar system using a Pockels cell and a quadrant photodiode

Abstract

We have proposed and demonstrated a novel technique to measure distance with high range precision. To meet the stringent requirements of a variety of applications, range precision is an important specification for laser radar systems. Range precision in conventional laser radar systems is limited by several factors, namely laser pulse width, the bandwidth of a detector, the timing resolution of the time to digital converter, shot noise and timing jitters generated by electronics. The proposed laser radar system adopts a Pockels cell and a quadrant photodiode and only measures the energy of a laser pulse to obtain range so that the effect of those factors is reduced in comparison to conventional systems. In the proposed system, the measured range precision was 5.7 mm with 100 laser pulses. The proposed method is expected to be an alternative method for laser radar system requiring high range precision in many applications.